OK, tunic body put together, sleeves not yet attached; about another hour of work to go.

I am not going to do the embroidery on this one. It’s from the LotR-film-inspired series of patterns from a few years ago, the one that you can make Elrond‘s robe from, and it wants embroidery on the collar and front. I’m not going to do that, because it will render the thing even less period; Liam doesn’t care, but darn it I do. I embroidered the last one, but only under protest.

Fortunately it’s a costume pattern, and thus pretty simple. All I have to do is put the sleeves in and attach the collar. Set-in sleeves are slightly annoying, but pretty easy.

Much as I would like to be working on garb right now, it’s too darn hot to be running a sewing machine. I expect it’ll be cooler shortly, and then I might be willing to bust out the Singer, but for now I have pieces cut out and I’m going to call that a win.

LessthanamonthtillPennsicgah.

One always needs more garb. Fortunately I discovered the stola last year, and as a result sewing for myself for Pennsic consists of making a tube with ribbons sewn into the shoulders¹. But Liam wants a sorta-Chinese robe thing for cool nights, and there’s actually some tailoring involved–plus, pretty much no one makes Chinese-inspired patterns to fit a guy who’s 6’3″ with a 52-inch chest. I have to do rather a lot of extrapolating from the pattern I do have.

That said, I’m looking forward to War this year more than I have in a while. People to see, and all that.

1: I bought fibulae, but they have gone missing. Having the ribbons sewn in is not terribly period, I admit, but it looks pretty good so I’m running with it.

1. If I were making this for myself, I’d just fudge it. Since I’m actually being paid, however, I went and bought a circular needle and will be swatching. Again.

2. You’d think I’d learn, but no; instead I get sick from insufficient food with the pills twice in less than 16 hours. The only good thing about it is that it’s generally over quickly, and once I’ve been sick I feel better and can eat without worry.

3. Hi, sellers on Etsy? All those random descriptors of your piece? Those should go in the tags, not in the name of the piece.

4. The plastic bag Boreas has been living in is starting to come apart, and I think I’m actually risking losing bits through the holes. It was never big enough to fit the hoop in anyway. Perhaps I have detected a use for the yard of quilting print I bought soley because I couldn’t resist it.

Liam’s going out of town next weekend, for values of “out of town” that require a passport¹. And since modern passports have RFID chips in them, and the border patrol people consider it bad form to deliberately burn out those chips, what we need is an RFID-proof case for him to keep his passport in.

Apparently, this can be done with aluminum foil stuck to duct tape. Not very aesthetic, though, so I’m going to make a decorative cover with a quilt block. At the moment the front runner is a block called Old Favorite; he’s got about 12 hours to change his mind before I actually cut into fabric.

Personally I think the fabrics he chose are ugly. But it’s not my passport cover, so it can be ugly to me all it likes.

1: For a week or so there it looked like I’d be needing one too, but a new passport on a rush basis was too much money. So he just renewed his. I should get one anyway soonish, just because I’d like to someday visit Canada again.

I have some lovely wool felt that I bought from Three Sheep Studios on Etsy, and I have no idea what to do with it. The colors, naturally, are what got me; they’re the kind of deep, nuanced jewel tones that I can’t resist. I’ve got a 6×8 inch piece of each of seven colors; each piece is about half the size of a sheet of paper.

I don’t know what to do! I mean, wall hangings and embroidery and the like are great, but it’s not as if my house is precisely a showplace for such things. I guess I could make something to put on Etsy myself; I’m just a little discouraged by the lack of any interest at all in anything I’ve had up in the last six months, and I admit at the moment the pickings are rather slim.

It feels wrong to just leave the fabric where I can pet it occasionally. Meanwhile I am being tempted by this bundle, with even more gorgeous colors. But if having some fabric I don’t know what to do with is bad, clearly having more would be worse…